26/05/2014 Look East - West

to change? Will they? Can they? Thank you. That is all from us for

this evening. It is In the European Elections,

it was another good night In the East,

they got more votes than anx other Of the seven MEPs,

UKIP now has three, up from two The Conservatives are still

on three. The Liberal Democrats lost their

only seat. This confirms that UKIP is now

a major player In the last Euro elections, they

came second, with 19% of thd vote. Last night they were first,

with 34%. When I joined

the party 15 years ago, winning here There will be two new faces

representing the East in Brtssels. Patrick O'Flynn of UKIP is

a former political journalist. He is colleague, Tim Aker, tsed to

work for the Taxpayers Alli`nce For the Conservatives, a sense of

relief as they defied expectations and held onto all three of

their seats, their share of the vote The people of the East of England

have spoken. They have as majority said, we need

a new relationship with Europe. That is exactly what

I've been saying. I have been saying

Europe needs to change. Our relationship with

it need to change. The big loser, Andrew Duff

of the Liberal Democrats. After 15 years in Brussels,

no longer an MEP. I think the country is experiencing

a wave of nationalism which, as you know, I don't like, H can't

explain it, and I can't justify it. While Labour failed to win

a second seat, the surge from UKIP They have had one good night

tonight, that they're celebrating, and people voting for them will be

pleased about that, but for five years, our region will be ldss well

represented, the work will be harder for me

as a Labour MEP to represent this region. In the East Midlands, which

covers Northamptonshire, both UKIP In the South East,

which covers Milton Keynes, there were four wins for UKHP, three

for the Tories and one each for The other parties still belheve this

is just a protest vote that will go away

at next year's General Election Our newest Euro MP is

Patrick O'Flynn from UKIP. When I spoke to him

late this afternoon, I asked him if UKIP had dond well `

which party had performed b`dly I think we took votes

off all our rivals. I would say, though, that

of the two biggest parties, the Tory vote probably held up a bit better

than expected and the Labour vote Your main plank is that you are

against being in Europe What can you do, though, from the

European Parliament? Our number one priority is to bring

back British sovereignty by getting Nonetheless, while we're thdre, we

need to be vigilant about Brussels' power grabs and try to block them

and make sure they do not h`ppen. We want to be there

for the important votes. And still less, go native, which

would be the worst fate of `ll. Mr Farage was talking about

where you might put people tp for the General Election next year

and he has highlighted Great Yarmouth

and parts of Cambridge. Well, if you look

at the council results, if xou look at the breakdown of who acttally won

the vote for the European elections in those areas, those are clearly

very good areas for us. They are areas where we havd

local government base. They are areas where the UKHP brand

is well known and well liked. There are extra areas in thd East,

too. The South Essex corridor, looking

at looking at Thurrock, looking at And why do you think UKIP h`s

so much support? I think people

in the eastern counties... They have always approached politics

from a common`sense percepthve so there's not too much of the

metropolitan sensibility gohng on. I think they're very much aware

of open`door immigration compressing wages

and perhaps making job opportunities more difficult for young people

as they move into adulthood. I think particularly in the south

of the region, there is heightened concern about pressure on greenbelt

and greenfield land due to development in part necessitated

by enormous levels of immigration. So what has been the reaction to

the results? In Essex,

UKIP made big gains in both Our reporter Gareth George has been

finding out what people think The bank holiday bargain hunters

were out early in Essex this morning,

and many weren't I voted UKIP this time. You would

normally vote Conservative. Yes. Because I felt they cotld do

It has been Labour for ten xears, then I went on to Conservathve,

Will you be voting for UKIP in the General Election as well

To be honest, I wasn't really surprised. I didn't vote UKHP.

Were you tempted to vote UKHP? A little bit, yes.

There are lots people who aren't happy about what is going on

Are you worried they are getting so many votes?

I think you have to be very careful and see what all

the parties are going to be doing over the next year.

Because unless we've got a few facts, you can't make

Essex is sometimes seen as a political barometer

for the whole country, and at least for the moment, UKHP seems

Are political correspondent is here. What does this tell us about our

region? We are a Eurosceptic region. It also tells us UKHP is a

major political player now hn this region, mainly I think becatse of

fears about immigration, but there are also a lot of people who have

just had enough with the mahn parties and in some parts of our

region, Northamptonshire, Cambridge, Essex, the main battle is

between UKIP and the Tories. UKIP have driven out the Lib Dems and are

now squeezing out Labour. How bad is it for Labour? They do not know what

to make of it. They had a mhxed picture in the local elections on

Thursday. A lot of their increased vote in last night came frol Liberal

Democrat voters but I am he`ring stories that a lot of Labour voters

stayed at home this week and did not vote. That is worrying for Labour if

it is true. Thank you. The drugs company Pfizer has

officially pulled out of an attempted takeover of

Astra`Zeneca, which employs hundreds of people in Cambrhdge

There had been fears that if the takeover had gone ahead, it could

have threatened plans already in place to move the company

headquarters to Cambridge. A fire in the centre of Fakdnham has

been described as the worst of The former Aldiss department store

was destroyed, It looks like something

from the Blitz, now no more than twisted

metal, smouldering bricks and There are pockets

of fire is still under the debris. We want to make sure none

of them spread, certainly not into any of the

buildings we have managed to save. Yesterday morning 100

firefighters tackled the bl`ze. For the moment,

Norfolk Fire and Rescue do not know One reason why no one was khlled or

injured. The weather.

The radar picture shows rain heading our way from the continent. Tonight

the rain could be heavy at times and possibly thundery, too. Temperatures

should not drop down to double figures for most of us. `` out of

double figures for most of ts. Torrential downpours at timds

tomorrow. With the cloud and rain, it will feel on the cool side. As we

head into the evening, some further heavy downpours just about `nywhere

possible, so the Met Office have issued a yellow warning frol

midnight tonight until midnhght tomorrow for the heavy rain. Perhaps

even 40 millimetres expected in sunspots. That would be over an inch

and a half. So definitely the chance of some localised flooding. Possibly

some heavy rain on Wednesdax. Hopefully lighter rain if wd get any

on Thursday. And then a brighter day on Friday, probably just ond or two

showers. The late bulletin is at 10:30pm

Good evening. Good evening. If I were to conduct a

straw poll about the weather events today, I suspect we would get a

split decision. There were significant differences around, we

have sunshine and some warmth, but also this cloud and rain coming up

through the Channel into the north of England. On top of that, some

showers in the north-west, some of them thundery from Northern Ireland

and Scotland, so a real eclectic